Children of the Grave
by thebigmacattack
Summary: RWBY/Marvel. Captain Ruby Rose is 2 years removed from being encased in Arctic ice. She is still struggling to adjust to modern life, Yang's death in WWII, & the prevalence of Dust. After an assassination attempt threatens to throw Beacon into chaos, Ruby discovers that sometimes the enemy lies within... & her greatest foe may have been by her side since her awakening.
1. Wrong Time, Right Place

Somehow, this happened. Somehow, a Skype chat went in this direction. Somehow, it became all about crossing RWBY over the MCU. The end result . . . is this. I have no idea if that's good or bad or not.

But . . . anyway, this is RWBY crossed with The Winter Soldier (with elements of Iron Man 3, The Avengers, and Captain America The First Avenger). Quite experimental and strange so far. I hope people like it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter One: Wrong Time, Right Place<strong>

_November 1st, 1942, Tunis (Vichy France)_

_Seven days before Operation Torch_

Sergeant Hans Raeder was angry.

He wanted to fight and he wasn't getting it out here in Tunis.

He wasn't deployed in the El Alamein area where his fellow German comrades in the _Afrika Corps_ were fighting for their lives against a determined Allied offensive.

He wasn't off in Stalingrad where his countrymen were locked in a life or death struggle against the hated Soviet _Untermensch. _

No, he was _here_, making sure the lazy-ass Italians weren't causing too much trouble and that the Allies weren't infiltrating the area. Two impossible tasks he couldn't do much about.

He knew full well the Allies were around here. Pretending to be French, pretending to be Italian, pretending to be German, pretending to be locals from the area. Pretending, pretending, _pretending_. And there weren't much he could do about it, even though his superiors were convinced he could.

There were rumors that the Allies were preparing an invasion of North Africa. Maybe then things would be exciting for Hans. The Americans were locked in a struggle with the Japanese on the other side of the world. The people the Americans were sending were raw recruits, unused to combat. They would die easily.

Hans almost welcomed the possibility.

Until then, though . . .

Hans looked over at a shop to his right. A few men of a group he was growing annoyed with, rearguard troops with nothing better to do, were harassing a storeowner. Looked like it was gonna get ugly.

He marched over then, his hands gripping his MP-40 submachine-gun just a little tighter.

"What the hell's going on here?" he asked no one in particular.

"This man's been collaborating with the Allies!" one of the privates exclaimed.

Hans eyed the man. He didn't look like he was associated with the Allies. The type of fear in the man's eyes was different from the fear he had seen from Allied saboteurs and agents.

"Is he, or is he not giving you what you want for free?" Hans asked.

The small squad looked down as a collective.

Hans sighed. Of course there was nothing truly going on here. Still, he had to do a formality.

"Empty your pockets and set what you have on the counter. Prove to them you have nothing to hide. I assure you that you won't get shot," Hans said. The storeowner was still going to lose_something_ over this, this was going to turn into a small robbery, but at least he was still going to keep his store and his head.

Hans looked around. The storeowner only had one customer, a girl. Looked European, by the looks of her, dark hair and silver eyes. She was completely ignoring the commotion at the front, seeming to be reading a newspaper in front of the canned goods section.

Now _she_ had something off about her. No ordinary civilian would be _this_ complacent when there were German troops in the front of the store harassing the storeowner.

Also, who had eyes like this girl? Those weren't natural.

He had heard whispers of the Allies messing around with a newly discovered substance. Since they were whispers originating from the SS, he wasn't sure whether he wanted to believe them or not. This substance could mess with humans' eyes and hair colors, and make animals . . . _more_ than simple animals.

Her appearance, in short, was most suspicious.

Hans stopped next to her, and she continued to pay him no mind. "_Fraulein_."

She ignored him, continuing to be lost in the newspaper.

"_Fraulein_."

Then she noticed him. She turned to her right, over to him. Her silver eyes were clear as day to him, and she looked young. Like a kid. Couldn't be older than fourteen, fifteen at best.

What was she?

"Oh! _Hallo, Herr!_ _Was ist los_?" She spoke German well enough, but there was a foreign accent. Hans couldn't place it. He didn't like it.

"I need you to head over to the counter and empty your pockets."

"What?" the girl asked, her face confused, but showing no signs of nervousness.

"Head over to the counter and empty your pockets, _fraulein_. I won't ask you again."

The girl raised an eyebrow. Her total lack of fear was startling. As were the next words she spoke.

"Are you . . . _robbing_ me?"

Hans would have said '_No_', but he was never presented with the opportunity to say so. Or say anything at all.

After all, the next thing he knew was that he was flying through the air, end over end, before crashing through a window and landing outside.

Hans wasn't even able to register that he had finally seen some action before unconsciousness took him.

Not that he would have wanted to register it, anyway.

* * *

><p>Ruby Rose hated trying to blend in with people. It never worked out. She had known it from the moment the man had gazed into her eyes. Silver eyes just didn't happen.<p>

Of course, after handing the sergeant's ass to him, there were a small squad of soldiers she needed to wipe out as well. Good for her, then, that she had brought in a special weapon to the party, a weapon that had already impressed her with the way it had helped send the German army sergeant flying through the window like a cannon had shot him out.

She unleashed the Crescent Rose.

She moved between them like an acrobat, kicking, punching, and whacking people with the Crescent Rose. In its current form, it was a gigantic, powerful scythe, and Ruby had no issue using the weapon exactly as it was designed to do.

She was not an ordinary girl. She hadn't been an ordinary girl since 1938. She hadn't been an ordinary girl since the Japanese had attacked China, if she wanted to get technical.

Dust was going to change the whole world, and the Axis Powers had no idea it was coming. Ruby wouldn't have it any other way.

After the commotion came to an unceremonious end, all that was left was the storeowner and Ruby. Ruby eyed the man, who had his back against the wall, quivering in fear.

Ruby smiled and waved. "Hi! Sorry about the mess!"

The storeowner's eyes rolled back into his head and he fainted.

Ruby sighed. She yanked out some of the francs that her officer had given her before she had been sent out here and set them down on the counter. Hopefully the storeowner would come to his senses before the Nazis did.

She thought about hiding the Crescent Rose and trying to stroll out like nothing happened, but before she could do so, she saw a trio of German patrolman rushing towards the store, guns out.

_Oh, this is swell._

Attempting to hide and blend back in was no longer a possibility.

The Germans opened fire. Utilizing her left hand, Ruby spun the Crescent Rose while walking backwards.

Dust had changed her. Her eyes, her body, they could do things that the supposed _Ubermensch _couldn't come close to doing.

She was only fifteen, but she was strong. And she knew what she had to do.

All the years in China, watching the Chinese and Japanese kill each other, had taught her war.

The moment they stopped firing in order to reload, or stare at her in shock, Ruby bent down by one of the privates she had knocked out and ripped his Luger pistol out of his holster. She opened fire with it, aiming right at the chests and heads of the patrolmen. They all dropped, though she emptied the pistol in the process.

She ran then, out the back, charging through the small freezer in the process.

_I wasn't supposed to go into action yet! Yang's gonna kill me_!

She hid the Crescent Rose, transforming it back into a innocent-looking baton, and ran through the alleys. Already, she could hear people all around her, shouting in German, not yet aware she had been the attacker.

_If the Nazis don't kill me first._

She frowned while she ran. The thought was automatic, try as she did to not think it.

_God, I hate Nazis_.

* * *

><p>Of course, by getting into a fight, Ruby had risked blowing the mission, which wasn't due to happen until tomorrow. When Ruby snuck into the safe house, she found herself approached by an exceptionally angry Yang Xiao Long.<p>

How did Ruby know Yang was '_exceptionally_ angry' and not just 'angry'? Her eyes were red. As red as blood.

"What were you thinking, Ruby?"

Ruby wasn't sure whether to be apologetic or terrified. Yang looked furious enough to kill her right now. "I-I didn't know what to do! He told me to empty my pockets!"

Yang buried her face in her palm. "This is why I keep telling you not to go outside unless it's absolutely necessary!"

When Yang's palm left her face, and she re-opened her eyes, they were their normal violet shade. Ruby calmed down then. She felt a lot of the pressure leaving the room with Yang's eyes back to normal.

Yang's eyes, much like Ruby's, had been permanently changed back in 1939. They had always been violet, but her long, golden hair, and that her eyes turned red when she was angry, _those_ were results of Dust. Yang was also Ruby's older sister (technically _half_-sister, their mother was different), and, as far as Ruby knew, the only other surviving member of her family. Unless their father was still alive wherever he was in China, anyway.

Yang's eyes seemed to shimmer as she looked at Ruby. "I know you have the right intentions, and I know you only fought because you felt you had to. But . . . if the enemy has any idea who you are . . ."

Yang did not need to finish the sentence for Ruby to understand. "Not only could I have blown the mission, but the enemy would know who we are. And possibly about Dust."

Yang's hands clenched into fists, and Yang's voice seemed to break, just a little. "And then we could get killed, and Dust won't be top secret anymore. I'm not letting you die in this war, Ruby, or have more people be killed because the enemy finds out about Dust. I just can't."

Ruby knew the lengths Yang would go to protect her. The discovery of Dust, the first attempt to experiment on the mysterious substance, it had ended in disaster. Ruby would never shake off the sight of her mother, Summer, disintegrating, nor the other scientists who were exposed to Dust and died the same way.

And she would always remember, as the Dust crept in closer, Yang grabbing Ruby, tackling her to the floor. Yang had tried desperately to tuck Ruby's arms underneath, trying to cover Ruby up with her own body. Futile as it was, it was the only thing that could be done to try, somehow, to save Ruby.

It didn't work. Dust infected Yang, and it infected Ruby too.

But they survived. Not only survived, but became _stronger_.

They were the only true supersoldiers in the world, and as American citizens, it was only a matter of time before the US military came calling. When the USA entered the war, they immediately got ahold of Yang and Ruby and put them through a private boot camp in the States. Now, in addition to Yang's Ember Celica and Ruby's Crescent Rose, they had formal hand-to-hand and firearms training . . . plus each got a promotion to captain so Allied soldiers would be forced to take them seriously.

Though, sadly, the look of Allied soldiers upon seeing Yang and Ruby tended to be sadness and dismay more than disrespect.

After all, they were still only kids.

"I don't think any of the survivors knew what hit them," Ruby finally said. "As long as I stay inside we'll be okay, I think. I wasn't followed."

She would have known if she was.

"You're sure," Yang said. It wasn't a question.

"Yes. One-hundred percent."

Yang managed to smile. "All right, if you say so. I'll trust you for this one."

Looking at Yang smile filled with Ruby with an impossible confidence. She felt invincible when she was with Wang. Like nothing would hurt them, or break them apart.

Perhaps most importantly, Ruby felt _safe_.

She chuckled and grinned widely. "I won't let you down, Yang!"

Yang's smile was warm, almost maternal. "I know you won't, Ruby."

* * *

><p><em>Washington D.C., United States<em>

_Present Day_

Ruby woke with blurry vision, a warm face, and a choked-up throat.

Tears leaked from her eyes as another memory of her big sister slid across her mind's eye like a slideshow.

"I'm sorry," she whispered at she stared at the ceiling.

She turned to her left, seeing the only surviving picture of her and her family, taken in the spring of 1937, right before the Japanese had attacked China.

Seeing her, Yang, their father Taiyang Xiaolong, and the only person either of them knew as "mother", Summer Rose. They had just traveled to China, not knowing that the discovery of the century was about to be made, or the true terror of war.

All of them, gone. Even if their father had survived the war, he would've been long dead by now.

No family. No one even to contact. Only one person she knew from the war still lived, and he was in an assisted living home, suffering from Alzheimer's, fading away by the day.

All of the battles. North Africa. Sicily. Italy. Burma. France. Belgium. Germany. Finally Norway, which had the most tragic battle of all.

What was it all for?

Ruby would give back all of the medals, all of her misleading youth, even her Crescent Rose, just for her family to still live.

She reached and grabbed the picture, which was neatly tucked into a wooden frame. She brought it to her chest for a few minutes, in total repose, trying to find strength.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again softly. "I'm sorry. I let you down. I let you all down."

The sun shone through her window then. It was a golden, scintillating light, the kind of light she had adored as a small child.

It was as if Yang was out there, in heaven, like an angel, inviting Ruby to wake up and join the world one more time.

_Okay. Okay. You win, Yang. _

The light faded, and then came back, as if the sunlight had winked at her.

_Rub it in, why don't ya?_

Ruby put the picture back down on her desk, and then sat up in her bed and rubbed her eyes and yawned.

Biologically, she was twenty. When she had been first exposed to Dust, the strength and the athleticism didn't really show. After all, she had been a kid. But as she grew older during the war, the strength, the speed, the endurance, the forced elite physical appearance, they had had begun to show themselves. And now that she was (biologically) twenty, it was all too clear what she was. She looked like she was some elite Olympic athlete, someone suited to triathlons . . . or perhaps that newfangled competition where people beat the hell out of each other senselessly in a cage. What was that again?

_Argh, who cares. It's just unhinged boxing. _

She looked over at the Crescent Rose, still strong, still unbreakable. Despite the war, despite being frozen in ice for a zillion decades like Ruby was, it still was like it was brand-new. The most resilient weapon ever made, by anyone.

She smiled.

After all, it was Ruby who built it herself.

She looked back outside then, staring out at the new day, with only a couple clouds in the sky to interrupt the inviting sunlight.

_Maybe I'll go for a run. That usually makes me feel better._

This early in the morning, the chances of being mugged for an impromptu autograph session (or some type of media frenzy) were fairly low too. The longer she waited, the less likely she would be able to run uninterrupted.

Yeah, the time was now.

She jumped from the bed, stretched, and walked over to her closet.

_There, you see, Yang, Mom, Dad? I'm not quitting yet. Stop worrying about me, okay?_

She opened the closet.

_I'm never gonna quit._


	2. Three Lefts Make a Right

There's some intentional riffage on the first few minutes of The Winter Soldier in this chapter. This pattern will not continue as the fic will soon launch in its own direction.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Two: Three Lefts Make a Right<strong>

_Washington D.C., United States  
>Present Day<em>

The outdoors was usually relaxing for Jaune Arc early in the morning. The perfect time to take a jog, before the politicians and media were out in force, before the news of the world could begin to affect his day. He was a young man, at the age of twenty-two, but he felt older. He had been feeling older ever since his return to civilian life, and he wasn't quite sure what to do with his life, even after he finished college.

College he only could have afforded because he had done time in the military, at that.

He had a lot of dreams. Were any of them going to come to fruition? Did he have any future other than maybe going to a Washington Redskins or Nationals game once in a while? What was he going to do once he was done with college? How long before he could finally forget Afghanistan, or central Africa, or any of the other places he had been?

"On your left."

Jaune turned to his left and barely got out of the way in time to see a girl charge past him.

He watched as she quickly got ahead of him and soon became a distant figure on the horizon.

_What the heck was that?_

The sun had barely come up so he couldn't really make out the girl's features or outfit. But nobody ran that fast. She was effectively running at a full sprint. That wasn't a jog, that was more like Usain Bolt or something, with the way she had just charged past him.

And she was showing no signs of slowing down. She was already almost gone from his vision.

He forced himself to not get frustrated and just keep going. Strange things still happened early in the morning. Maybe he had randomly stumbled on an Olympian or something. Guess they had to train wherever they were. Maybe the President was going to meet with a bunch of the gold medalists from the Brazilian 2016 games. Yeah, that had to be it. The Games only ended a short time ago, and the President would want some of the higher profile Olympians to meet with him for photo ops, especially as he was about to leave office. Though he hadn't heard of the President meeting with any Olympians, gold medalists or otherwise . . .

_I guess a celebrity went by me. That was cool._

The sun continued to rise. Jaune couldn't help but smile. Here, away from the front, he almost felt safe. He almost could forget about the tension and gunfire and angry or despairing locals.

The question is whether he could forget.

His parents had opened the door for him down at the local Veterans' Affairs office, but he wasn't sure that was something he really wanted to do. Plus he didn't want to take out a handout from his parents. Yes, working there would be a good job, and it would help him financially, and he would be around a lot of people like him who had experienced things similar to what he had. But would that really help him forget? Would it really make him better?

"On your left!"

_Wait, what? Already?!_

Jaune could only watch as the exact same girl came flying past him yet again from the left. Now that the sun was higher, he could make out more of her. She was _strong_, the epitome of elite physical fitness, with highly toned, even muscular, arms and legs, and she was almost . . .

The back of her dark hair looked oddly familiar, plus for some reason there hints of red in that dark hair too . . .

_Wait. No way. No way. _

There was no way Ruby Rose had just run past him. Twice.

But what else made sense? How could the same girl pass him twice in about fifteen or so minutes? She was going . . . at least twenty miles per hour or so! Maybe even twenty-five at the pace she was setting! She was faster than the cyclists or even cars taking a stroll in a suburban neighborhood!

_That was her! That had to be her! _

He was wrong. This wasn't just another celebrity. This was someone who was _beyond_ celebrity. She was a war hero, among other things, and one of the most famous people in the entire world, much less the United States.

Why was she here now, today of all days? And why hadn't he seen her before if she lived around here?

_Maybe she takes a different route every day so people don't know when she's around_.

That would probably tell the story right then and there. That meant she wasn't likely to retake this route anytime soon, either.

_I gotta talk to her if she winds up crossing my path again. Hopefully that will be in just a few minutes-_

"On your left!"

_Oh come on!_

Jaune, as he rounded a corner, could only watch Ruby run by yet again, still setting her Olympian-esque pace.

He tried frantically to keep up with her, but could only manage a few paces before his lungs burned and he was done.

He wasn't going to finish _one_ lap, much less try to do plural.

_If this was a NASCAR race, I'd be the worst driver ever._

He walked off the park then, heading for a tree.

_I wish I could've made it to my water bottle at least._

* * *

><p>Ten minutes later, Jaune was still trying to catch his breath and have his lungs not completely give out. Maybe he wasn't in of good of a shape as he thought.<p>

Or maybe that effort to try to keep up with Captain Ruby Rose was all it took for his body to finally say '_Enough!_' and collapse.

He leaned against the tree, letting the sweat pour down his face, trying to not let it bother him.

_She's the one who breathed in that 'Dust' stuff. I gotta get my hands on that, possibly-turning-into-a-rage-monster-aside. _

The famous, or_infamous, _Pyrrha Nikos, also twenty-two, had caused her fair share of chaos until the last couple of years when she, somehow, had gotten control of herself. Now the Hulk was almost as hot as Pyrrha was, if not more so, and she could speak complete sentences with multi-syllable words. It was weird to think about. Pyrrha Nikos, talented athlete in her own right (though one with bad luck to be near a Dust experiment gone wrong), exceptionally attractive, and had enough will to reign in the monster inside her.

She was a gorgeous, resilient person. Someone Jaune would want to land but was far beyond his reach.

Just like . . .

"Need a medic?"

_No way_.

Jaune looked up and saw Ruby Rose in the flesh, standing over him.

There was no mistaking it, looking at her still-girlish face. That was her. The legendary World War II war hero, in the flesh.

"I . . . I, um . . ." He couldn't quite talk.

"Still out of breath?" she asked.

"I need a new set of lungs," he moaned, hanging his head.

Ruby laughed. "Don't feel bad! You were doing pretty well, I'm sorry for throwing you off!"

"No, I threw myself off." Suddenly, Jaune heard a shuffling from his left and saw Ruby sitting down next to him.

_She's . . . she's sitting down next to me. She's really sitting down next to me_!

Suddenly, Ruby took out a water bottle and handed it to him. Jaune could barely keep his hands from shaking as he took the water bottle from her hands. "T-Thank you."

"No problem. It's my spare."

"_You_ need a spare water bottle?" Jaune could barely keep from asking.

Ruby chuckled. "One thing I've learned is always bring a spare of _something_."

_Oh. Right. Smooth, Jaune._

"You look like you served. What division?" Ruby asked.

"Um . . . 1st Infantry. Served in Afghanistan, holding down a base. N-Now I . . . do college and I work part-time at the VA office."

He realized he hadn't given his name. "Um . . . I'm Jaune Arc."

"Ruby Rose."

"I-I figured you were."

She was a beautiful young woman. An innocent, angelic face, on a lithe body of power and speed. It was hard to look at her in the eye. No wonder she had captured the imaginations of so many when her exploits became public after the war.

He drank some of the water. "I did two tours, over in Afghanistan. I only got back a couple of months ago. Still trying to adjust to a normal bed."

"Afraid of sinking to the floor?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah."

"I get the same feeling still."

She sighed. "So much has changed. Food's a lot better, you wouldn't _believe_ how much we had to boil. No polio's good, and that _Pokemon_ game is so addicting. Pikachu's the cutest thing I've ever seen. And the Internet . . . once I figured out how to use it, it's been helpful too. I'm still trying to catch up, though."

Odd. She wasn't a war hero right now. She was . . . almost an ordinary girl. She _was_ just twenty, biologically, wasn't she? At least that's what Wikipedia claimed.

Maybe she just wanted another person, a soldier like her, to talk to.

"Do you ever pay a visit to the VA?" Jaune asked.

"No. I figured I would cause too much of a distraction."

_Oh. Right. She's famous. _"Sorry, I forgot."

"Don't be, you're fine, Jaune!" she laughed.

He looked at her. Hard to believe she had seen, and been through so much.

"Is it all true? All of the places you were in the war?"

"Yep."

"Even Burma?"

Ruby sighed. "_Especially_ Burma. They pulled Yang and I out from the European front, got the bright idea to have us help the Chindits cause havoc among the Japanese. We didn't stay there long, once malaria started spreading the brass had Yang and I yanked out of there and sent back to Europe. But there . . ."

Her silver eyes, a symptom of her exposure to Dust, looked away from him, and seemed lost, wistful. "I think Yang and I did the most good in Burma, especially during the siege of Imphal."

Jaune could barely remember reading about their exploits in Burma. "Didn't you save some colonel's life?"

"Colonel Orde Wingate. He has disobeyed orders and tried to fly during a bad rainstorm. Yang got a bad feeling and got her and me onboard the flight. Sure enough the plane lost sight and began to crash. We had parachutes ready, she grabbed the colonel and I grabbed a couple of other staffers, and Yang blew a hole in the side of the plane and we jumped out just before the crash."

There was something different about her now. It was like she was remembering the events as if they had just happened. He could see it in her body language, hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes and mouth.

"Wingate . . . wound up having the Chindits change directions and cut off the Japanese facing Imphal. We did that, and . . . the Japanese military attacking Imphal was eventually destroyed. Yang and I didn't stick around to see that happen because of the malaria concern, but I like to think that part of the reason why the Japanese were beaten back in Southeast Asia for the rest of the war was because we saved Colonel Wingate's life."

"How were you able to just keep fighting like that?" Jaune finally asked. He wasn't sure how to feel about hearing Ruby's story, but he definitely wanted to get to know her better now. And not because of her looks, either.

"Yang and I were the only ones of our kind. Where they needed us, that's where we went. And I knew we were needed. It was a war we needed to fight, a war we needed to win. Yang and I couldn't afford to break."

She looked up at him. "You have battle fatigue?"

"Huh?" Jaune had no idea what that was supposed to mean.

"Um, I mean . . . post-traumatic stress disorder, I think the modern term is. I'm sorry for prying, but . . . I don't think you would've asked me that question, otherwise."

Now she had turned the tables back on him. Now she wanted to know about _him_.

And he wasn't sure he wanted to tell her.

"You've been through so much . . . and I couldn't take two tours in Afghanistan," he said softly.

He looked back at her to see a gentle, small smile on her face. "You're fine. And I know you're doing the right thing, being with your fellow soldiers, right now. Giving them support."

She looked away. "What I read about our veterans from Vietnam _pisses me off_. They came home to be spat on and jeered and be called 'baby-killers'. I'm happy none of that happened for the Afghanistan veterans or I'd want to knock some heads together."

The bitterness in her tone suggested that not all things about what had transpired since the end of World War II sat right with her. And Jaune had a feeling that if people had their heads knocked together by Ruby, they wouldn't get up for a while. If at all. For the first time, Ruby actually seemed a bit scary.

"They did make the Vietnam Veterans Memorial," Jaune offered.

"That's the silver lining. But they still deserved better right after they came home." Ruby sighed. "I'm sorry. This conversation has taken such a weird direction. We only just met."

"Yeah." Jaune had the sense that Ruby was about to leave. Something was begging him, deep in his chest, to not let her go just yet.

"Um . . . I got one thing . . . that maybe you might like, if you're still trying to catch up."

"Yeah, I still am," Ruby said; her humor and smile returning. "What is it?"

"Uh . . . _Jurassic Park_. My favorite movie of all time. Plus it has an amazing score by John Williams. Best music I've ever heard for a movie."

"Sure. I'll put both on the list." Ruby pulled out a pen and a small notepad and began writing in it. Jaune peered over and could just make out what she already had on her list.

_Gunsmoke (Television)_

_Berlin Wall (Up and Down)_

_Moon Landing_

_Bill Gates (Microsoft)_

_Sonic The Hedgehog (Sega Genesis games only?)_

_Janis Joplin (Singer)_

_Chinese Food_

_Deep-Dish Pizza_

_Star Trek__/Star Wars_

_The Wire (more television)_

_Stephen King (novelist)_

_Led Zeppelin I-IV (how many Led Zeppelins are there?)_

And underneath the last, she wrote _Jurassic Park, movie AND soundtrack_.

_She's actually going to watch Jurassic Park because I recommended it. Holy crap._

She smiled at him again, and in that moment, she seemed almost like a girl again. "Thank you! If I see you again I'll let you know what I thought of it, okay?"

"T-Thanks, er, I mean, you're welcome."

Ruby laughed, but then something beeped. Ruby yanked a phone out of her pocket and stared at it for a moment.

"I'm sorry, Jaune, but it looks like duty's gonna call. I can't exactly run everywhere, you know."

A car pulled up. A sports car, black, looked like a souped-up Ford Mustang.

"No you can't," Jaune said softly.

The passenger's side window rolled down and Jaune stared at a dark-haired young man with a green streak in his hair. "Hi. I'm here to pick up an old lady."

Ruby sighed and got up, brushing herself off. "I don't _look_ old, that's what counts."

Suddenly, an orange haired girl peeked out, clearly leaning over from the passenger seat. "Ooh, Ruby's with a guy! Did you spill any classified info to him, Ruby?"

Even with her back turned to him Jaune could tell Ruby was annoyed. "Why, Nora?"

"So I get to put the hammer down on him, why else?"

"No, Nora," the man said, rolling his eyes.

'Nora' put on a pouty face. "Aww. You're no fun, Lie."

"You make that part of my job description. Now sit back down."

"Phooey."

Juane could only stare.

_That has to be Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie! Two of the people who helped Ruby save New York right after she was unfrozen! Crap!_

Ruby got up and brushed herself off. "I'm sorry, Jaune, but if these two pulled up here, that means there's something I have to do. Most likely something Nora _would_ have to whack you on the head over. But I'll see you later sometime, all right?"

"Y-Yeah, sure," Jaune said.

She gave him a light, cheerful wave. "Thanks for the conversation! Bye!"

She got into the passenger seat and the car immediately drove away as she rolled the window up.

Jaune could only stare at the car as it faded into Washington D.C. traffic. _Three of them. Three of BEACON's best people, and I just met them. I can't believe it. _

Suddenly, he looked at his hand. And realized what he was still holding.

_Oh, crap! She left behind her water bottle! How am I going to give it back to-_

Suddenly, as he looked around, he saw a spot on the ground where Ruby had been sitting. A piece of paper, sitting gently in the grass, held down by a rock so it wouldn't blow away.

Jaune picked it up. An email address.

An actual email address.

_Ruby Rose's_ email address. Had to be.

Jaune wanted to faint.

_She wants to stay in touch with me. _The _Captain Ruby Rose, wants to stay in touch with _me_. Has to be a dream. Has to be a dream_.

Jaune immediately pinched himself. Hard.

"Ow! God!"

Nope, this was real.

And, judging by the way a couple of bystanders were eyeing him, this was probably going to go on somebody's Tumblr today.

Jaune hung his head. Such was life.

At least, for today . . . it was a blessed one.

As long as those bystanders didn't have cameras.


	3. Wings and Prayers

We're approaching the first action centerpiece of the story. I hope people like it. As for the flashbacks to WWII, they won't be in every chapter, but they'll be in the next four chapters including this one. There's a reason for that, I'm building towards something.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three: Wings and Prayers<strong>

_Indian Ocean  
>Present Day<em>

Ruby Rose sat down near the ramp. It wasn't her turn to jump yet, in fact, it wasn't coming for a while.

A lot of people complained about the C-130. Ruby kind of liked it. It was a far more spacious plane than the ones she had to fly in. She could find a corner somewhere and just read a book for a while if she needed space. Considering the size of her book, and considering how much longer they needed to be in the air before they reached her destination, that was a good thing indeed.

"What tome are you reading, mortal?"

Unless, of course, someone disturbed her privacy. Like Nora Valkyrie.

Ruby looked up. "_The Stand_. Stephen King."

Nora chuckled lightly. "_Another_ 'king'?"

"It's his last name."

"Oh, I know. I'm just doing what your mortals call 'screwing with you'. It is most amusing."

_Why am I not surprised?_

Nora was strange. She seemed to have her head up in the clouds all the time, always blithely smiling and acting like she didn't have a care in the world. And yet, sometimes, she would preach about 'worthiness' and the 'pride of mortals' or some such.

Nora fidgeted with her Mjolnir hammer a bit. Nora went by two aliases, 'Valkyrie', most of the time, but she _really_ loved being called 'Thor'. That was her official title in Asgard, apparently, due to being able to wield Mjolnir, but she would accept 'Valkyrie'.

This was good, because Nora did _not_ look like a 'Thor' to Ruby. She didn't look like a 'Valkyrie' either, but at least she fit _that_ description better than 'Thor'.

"What is this _The Stand_ about?" Nora asked.

"It's about a group of people fighting evil in a post-apocalyptic world."

Nora sniffed. "You mortals and your obsessions with the apocalypse. Tell stories about triumph, about glory, the way you used to! They're a lot more fun than 'darkness be my friend against more darkness that hides in darkness'!"

It occurred to Ruby that Nora had leaned in close. Real close. She looked up from the book and saw Nora was almost leaning over the book at this point.

"You have no concept of personal space, do you?"

Nora grinned. "None. In Asgard there is no such thing. We touch each other however-"

_She's not finishing that sentence! _"Too much information."

"But I haven't gotten to how the glorious Lady Sif and I-"

"I am on a need to know basis about your exploits, and I declare that whatever you're about to say is something I don't need to know."

Nora made a pouting face that reminded Ruby of a begging puppy. "Don't you _want_ to know?"

"No."

"You're even less fun than Lie Ren."

Ruby remembered Lie Ren's warnings about Nora all too well. Nora was someone best kept at a reasonable distance. Too many BEACON members had found out the hard way about not heeding that simple advice.

"Only sometimes," Ruby said, offering Nora a smile.

"Remind me when you're being more fun than Lie Ren and I will happily regale you with my tales of Asgard. I have achieved so much glory that my father is finally proud of me, though he is disappointed in I taking a liking to Midgard."

"All right," Ruby said.

One of the BEACON field officers, Brock Rumlow, approached Nora then. He was a veteran BEACON operative, in his mid-forties, with dark hair and a tall, well-built physique. Nora turned to look at him, and remarkably, Brock was not fazed like a lot of other humans Ruby had seen.

"We're approaching your destination. Time to jump."

Nora pumped her fist in the air. "As you mortals say, 'okay'!"

She turned to Ruby and grinned widely, waving at Ruby like she didn't have a care in the world. "Tell me about your mission when we see each other again, Ruby!"

"Um, sure," Ruby said, offering an awkward hand flip.

The ramp was already lowering, and the sound of the wind was making it difficult to hear her own voice, much less Nora's. But Nora seemed to hear her anyway, because she smiled before she ran off.

"Farewell, Ruby of the Roses!"

Ruby had corrected Nora more times she could count over her name. Ruby had decided a few months ago that it was something Nora did on purpose, because she _did_ get Ruby's name correct in other, more serious or casual instances. It was just something Nora just liked to say, because . . . she was Nora.

Ruby watched Nora run towards the ramp and leap into the air, vanishing from sight. Ruby heard an audible "_Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!_" above the din of the air and the plane, as if it had been amplified by a god.

Then again, she pretty much was one.

A young BEACON operative stared at the closing ramp, horror clearly on his face. "Was she wearing a parachute?"

"Nope," Brock and Ruby said in unison.

"She doesn't really need one, does she?" the rookie asked.

"Nope," Brock and Ruby said in unison again.

Brock turned to Ruby then, just as the ramp closed. "Final briefing's in 0100 hours. We'll be arriving at Hong Kong pretty quickly."

"Thank you. I'll be there." Ruby set her watch to fifty minutes, and smiled as she looked at Brock. He was an older, more mature presence among her frequent collaborators on these missions, and Ruby appreciated him for that. Too many of these kids and rookies didn't know what they were getting themselves into, even though, biologically, they were older than Ruby.

Brock nodded. "You always are."

He walked away, leaving Ruby with her book. With a sigh, she opened it up again. Stephen King was not a bad writer, but he was not Ernest Hemingway. They had similarities, including fairly plain, simple prose, but King lacked the edge Hemingway had. Hemingway's prose was hard, anti-literary, much like King's, but Hemingway could _cut_ so much more.

She thought about switching to _The Old Man and the Sea_. It had been released after the war, like _Across the River and Into the Trees_, which she had finished a short time ago. It was the last Hemingway novel published before he had tragically killed himself, and Ruby was trying to save reading it for when she felt it was the right time. It still didn't feel like the time was 'right', but she so desperately wanted to read it.

Novels these days disappointed her. She had yet to find a female author on Jane Austen's level. _Twilight_ had her holding her sides in laughter after just fifty pages due to the sheer_idiocy_ of the characters and the childish prose and airheaded dialogue. Suzanne Collins wasn't bad though, with her _Hunger Games _work, but that trilogy sometimes got depressing just for the sake of being depressing. There wasn't much a point to piling on additional tragedy, especially towards the end. And the less she could say about Laurell K. Hamilton or Anne Rice, the better.

Maybe she just wasn't looking in the right places. Maybe she was too busy listening to what other people recommended instead of seeking out what she truly wanted on her own.

She set down _The Stand_ and pulled out her copy of _The Old Man and the Sea_. Feeling the book in her hands, it took her back to when she had Hemingway on other planes, long ago . . .

* * *

><p><em>Over Sicily, Italy<br>July 9th, 1943  
>Operation Husky<em>

Ruby was almost through the third chapter of _For Whom the Bell Tolls_. After years of searching for it, she had finally found it. She had traded all of the Hershey bars, cigarettes (which she found disgusting) and lemonade packets she had stocked up in order to have the book. It wasn't like she had any bookstores to visit when she was always on duty, and she figured she could stockpile more chocolate down the line. She already had a couple of bars on her, so she was already making progress on achieving the ultimate chocolate stockpile to share with her sister after the war was over.

Literacy was something Ruby loved. In all of her environments, she had been surrounded by people who couldn't read, couldn't write, couldn't spell. The ability to read was like a portal to other worlds, to the fringe of imagination, had opened. Hemingway was her favorite (Jane Austen was a close second) due to his brutal simplicity. There weren't any fancy descriptions, there weren't any unnecessary words, no pretentious preaching or speeches. It is what it is. Ruby had to figure out what Hemingway's themes were herself, without them being told to her, and she appreciated that.

Reading about the Spanish Civil War reminded her of her own war. Hemingway knew what war was like. It was like reading a journal from a kindred spirit. Ruby wanted to meet Hemingway someday, to tell him how much she appreciated his approach to writing, how he skillfully showed his themes without telling the reader what they were, how she felt a connection beyond being a mere reader just by opening his books.

It wasn't like Ruby would ever meet Jane Austen and tell her how much she appreciated _her_, so . . .

A hand on her shoulder. "Ruby, it's almost time. Put it away."

Yang's voice. Ruby turned to her right and saw Yang looking at her, smiling.

"I was almost finished with the third chapter."

"You can finish it after we're done with the mission. Consider it motivation," Yang said.

"Aww. All right," Ruby said softly, and she memorized the page number and closed the book. She quickly stuffed it into her pack.

The soldier to her left eyed her. "I can't believe the goddamn army's sending little girls like you to war now."

"I'm not a little girl," Ruby said softly, for the umpteenth time in this war, it felt.

Before either of them could say anything more, the leader of the 'stick' stood up. Lieutenant Bradley McCoy looked like he was approaching thirty, but Ruby didn't feel too assured about him. No one from the 82nd Airborne Division had found in combat before. Being attached to the best group of men in the regiment didn't mean much to her. Until they saw battle, there was no real way to tell who the 'best' was.

"All right, ladies and gentlemen stand up! We're approaching our drop point!"

"What drop point?" shouted a paratrooper near the front. "You take a look out the door, sir? It's pea soup!"

"Fog or not, the pilots have given me the signal that we're dropping. Now I need to make something clear to you all here."

McCoy cleared his throat loudly and began speaking. "We were handpicked by Colonel Gavin himself for this mission! He considers us his very best men! Our mission is to ensure these young ladies here complete their own! They may not look it, but those ladies we're jumping with _are _the best soldiers in the entire United States military and we need to bring them back home!"

"You're shitting me!" shouted a para. Ruby got the uncomfortable feeling she was being stared at.

"I am _not_ shitting you, Corporal! We are the best of the 505th and that is why we're going with them! We are going deeper into Sicily than any other plane! Those young ladies saw a lot of action in North Africa, and half of their dossiers are blacked out! They wouldn't be so goddamn classified without reason, and I've seen why that is!"

Suddenly, Ruby heard metallic _pings_.

_Shit, they're shooting at us!_

"Stay calm, Ruby," Yang said softly.

"I am," Ruby lied. "I am."

The red light turned on. Ruby knew what that meant.

"All right, stand up!" McCoy shouted.

Everyone did.

"Hook up!"

Ruby fumbled with her hook but managed to clip it onto the wire. She could feel Yang sifting through her equipment, making sure it would trigger.

"Who's shooting at us?!" screamed someone in the back.

"The Italians! That's why they haven't shot us down yet, they can't hit the side of a-"

An explosion near the front of the plane nearly knocked Ruby to the ground. She felt Yang immediately reach for her and pull her back up.

_Oh my God. Oh my God. Are we going down? _

"L-T's gone! L-T's gone!"

"Get the hell out of the plane!"

"Move it, move it!"

By the time Ruby regained her senses, she saw the three soldiers in front of her pushing themselves out of the plane. As the third one left, Ruby saw the body of Bradley McCoy, burned and bloodied.

Ruby stiffened. Even the worst of Africa had never made her this scared. She could still hear bullets hitting the plane, and she could hear screaming and shouting behind her.

_Am I going to die like him? I'm gonna die like him, aren't I?_

She felt her sister's hands on her shoulders. "I'm with you, Ruby. We're jumping together. Come on."

Somehow Ruby was able to move her legs and approached the opened door.  
><em><br>This isn't right. We're jumping too early. Way too early._

"Ruby, I'm with you! Go!"

Ruby looked down, towards the ground below. At least three anti-aircraft guns were shooting at the plane, judging by the white flashes.

_Just like jump training. Just like jump training._

Ruby took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and walked out of the plane.

She felt like she was nearly being blown off the plane. Immediately she felt sore all over her body. The plane was going much too fast.

She looked down, holding onto her activated parachute for dear life as she approached the ground.

_Just like jump training. Just like jump training_.

The wind was blowing her towards a small tower, and she realized she was going to crash right into an enemy soldier at the very top.

_Dammit!_

Ruby stiffened and prepared to fight as she was about to crash into the unknowing soldier.

_This isn't like jump training at all!_

Impact.

* * *

><p><em>Somewhere over Hong Kong<br>Present Day_

"You all right?"

It was Lie Ren. Ruby shook her head out of the doldrums and looked over at him.

"I'm fine. Just waiting until we land."

_At least I don't have to jump this time._

The mission was simple. There was a club in Hong Kong run by a Hei "Junior" Xiong, He was rumored to be connected to the terrorist group "White Fang", particularly in ferrying Dust to them. Intelligence said that was true, but rumor also had it that he was holding at least one BEACON agent hostage. Ruby and Lie Ren were to enter the club as a couple, find out the truth, find the hostage(s), and if backup was necessary Brock Rumlow and company would break in and light the place up.

It was a mission guaranteed to end in violence, and in way Ruby was more comfortable with that than if the mission could swing either way. It was less stressful than worrying about whether to avoid battle or not.

Suddenly, her phone beeped. Ruby took a look at the screen, saw the name of the caller, and sighed. "Hang on, I gotta take this."

She turned it on to see a video of Weiss Schnee, looking proper and dressed in white like she almost always was. "_Hey, Ruby! How are you?_"

"Classified," Ruby offered.

"_Ah, _that_kind of mood, huh? Did you bring Argentum Rose with you?_"

"First tell me how you tapped into a secure line."

"_I'm Weiss Schnee_."

Ruby sighed. "Good enough. And yes, I have it."

"_Oh good, you're finally trying it out! I designed that weapon specifically for you! It's far more efficient with using Dust than Crescent Rose, and it can revert to a far more compact state. Perfect for undercover work._"

"I know what it does, Weiss." Though Ruby wasn't thrilled. She loved her Crescent Rose, but Weiss had been begging Ruby to give Argentum Rose a shot for months. Ruby felt there was no harm in using Argentum Rose for this one, she didn't want to keep hurting Weiss' feelings and this was definitely going to become a combat op.

"_Well, when you come back to the States, want to hang out for a little bit? I'm going to try to get all of the girls together for a meeting, and Lie._"

"What am I, chopped liver?" Lie sighed.

Weiss' eyes widened. "Oh crap, Lie heard me, didn't he?"

"He did," Ruby said with a wry smile.

Weiss rubbed her forehead. "_Sorry, Lie! It just feels weird to think of you as one of the girls!_"

"I'd . . . prefer to not be thought of as a girl," Lie said softly.

"_We need to get another guy in here. You need a guy friend." _

"Please stop talking," Lie said softly. Ruby, for her part, was finding it hard not to laugh.

"_Well, anyway, give me all of the relevant date and your thoughts about Argentum Rose, Ruby! I've got to do the prodigal playgirl philanthropist thing on my side of the world . . . and before you're caught talking to me on a supposedly secure feed. See ya!"_

"Sure. Bye," Ruby said, and Weiss killed the connection then.

Ruby looked over at Lie. "Sorry. She gets like that."

"I've noticed. A lot."

Ruby chuckled. "Well, let's get ready to depart. I'm sure Weiss is jealous on the inside, why else would she have called? I get to hit a club and she can't."

"She takes advantage of her being legal far too much," Lie said.

"Well, she is a 'prodigal playgirl philanthropist', in her own words," Ruby said.

"She's one of those things, for sure," Lie said.

Ruby caught the joke right away. Lie was good with the deadpan, though sometimes she couldn't tell whether he was joking or not.

"She's not that bad. Honest. She helped finance me getting pulled from the Arctic," Ruby said.

"If you say so. We're about to land, time to get ready," Lie said.

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Right with you, Lie."

They sat down just in time for the plane to touch ground.

Playtime was over. Now it was time for work.


	4. Clubbed to Death

RIP Monty Oum. We all love you. Godspeed.

There will be a chapter dedicated to his memory down the line. This isn't it.

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four: Clubbed to Death<strong>

_July 10th, 1943_

_Sicily_

_Operation Husky_

It was a fight to the death the moment Ruby crashed into the Italian soldier stationed on the exposed top of the small tower. Ruby stretched her arms out and forced her weight to the front of her body, and smashed the Italian soldier's ribs in with her knee. The soldier gasped in pain and his grip loosened on his rifle, which Ruby seized and immediately clubbed him over the head, knocking him off the tower completely and sending him to the ground below.

It wasn't the first life she had taken, and Ruby knew, without needing to reflect, that it wouldn't be the last.

"_Americano! Americano!_" came the shout from down the tower, before Ruby could even fathom cutting herself free of her parachute.

Ruby rushed to the stairwell with the Italian rifle in hand and immediately saw an Italian soldier. Ruby took aim and fired and put a bullet in the Italian soldier's skill. She fumbled with the bolt, as this rifle, the Carcano M91, was an unfamiliar rifle for her, but she managed to get the next bullet in place by the time the next Italian soldier appeared.

Ruby shot him too. And then a third, as he was reaching for a grenade to throw.

A fourth appeared as Ruby was going to look for her knife, and Ruby aimed and fired only to hear the worst sound she could hear: a _click_.

_Dammit!_

Ruby did the only thing she could do as the Italian aimed for her head, and that was chuck the Carcano at the Italian with all of her strength.

The rifle smashed into his face, right on the nose. He crumpled to the ground and fell down multiple stairs before he finally came to a rest, and didn't move.

Gasping for breath and already drenched in sweat, not from exertion, but from raw _fear_, Ruby forced her trembling hands to search for her knife so she could finally cut herself free from her parachute. All around her, she could hear shouting and gunfire, but she couldn't hear Yang's voice above the din.

_Please don't be dead. Please don't be dead, Yang._

Just she cut herself free; she heard a loud explosion in the distance that made her grip the stone to her left for support. Had to have been a plane that had gotten shot down. Maybe it was her own.

There were more Italian guns than American ones now. As Ruby slowly, deliberately, descended the circular flight of stairs, she unslung the M1 Garand so it was in her hands, but she was already questioning the idea.

_Should I switch to Crescent Rose? Wouldn't that be better?_

Crescent Rose didn't have a lot of ammunition though, it was hard to come by. Even though Ruby had built Crescent Rose and had also designed her ammunition, the Allies were having trouble controlling Dust to insert into bullet casings, so Ruby and Yang weren't exactly getting a lot. Wasting Crescent Rose at the very beginning of her mission would likely be a critical error.

_Not using it and being dead is a critical error too, _said a voice in the back of her mind.

She reached the entrance/exit of the tower, and hid behind the doorway. The door was long gone, likely blown off or removed. She could hear Italians shouting outside, and they sounded close. Really close.

She peeked outside and suddenly saw four or five Italians running in the open field outside.

Ruby ducked back, gripping her rifle so tightly she thought she was going to smash the wood. She was cut off from everyone else. And if she dared to stick her head out or try to shoot her way out, she'd no doubt be wounded if not killed. It would be outright suicidal if she hadn't been changed by Dust.

_I'm going to have to use Crescent Rose. That's the only way I'm going to get out of here! _

Shaking, she began to put away her M1 when she heard a deep firing sound, almost like a train, erupt from outside.

_That's Yang!_

She wasn't using Ember Celica. Ruby remembered that Yang's standard weapon of choice was the Browning Automatic Rifle, or the B.A.R. Yang had super-strength like her and loved to show it off, and she could handle the B.A.R. like it was a pistol.

Ruby leaned back outside to see Italians scrambling to get away from the B.A.R. bursts. Two of them were coming right for her position.

Ruby shouldered her M1 again and opened fire.

Both of the Italians dropped like they had slammed into a brick wall and laid limp on the ground.

Ruby forced herself to not look at the bodies. Any of the bodies. Just for Yang. Only for Yang.

She saw Yang then, charging through the field, her head turning here, there, everywhere. Clearly looking for Ruby.

"Yang!" she shouted.

Yang spun towards Ruby. "Ruby! You're all right?"

"Yes!" Ruby said.

Yang waved for Ruby to follow. "Come on, we need to get out of here! We're sitting ducks in the village!"

"A-All right!" Ruby pumped her legs and forced herself to run as fast as she could after her sprinting sister. Yang had more to carry, being a B.A.R.-user, so Ruby made up more ground than she expected as Yang led the way, cutting down a couple of more Italians who crossed her path, before they made it outside the village and into the Sicilian brush.

After another football field or two of sprinting, Yang slid behind some bushes and trees and Ruby joined her, both of them gasping for breath.

In the distance, the gunfire had stopped. All they could hear now were anti-aircraft guns and flames.

"Dammit, Ruby," Yang gasped. "What were you thinking, crashing into a tower like that?"

"It wasn't my idea!" Ruby wheezed. "That's how the wind took me! I was falling too fast to have control!"

Ruby sat up. "Where's everyone else?"

"I don't think the entire stick got out of the plane," Yang said. "I saw the plane crash. Not everyone landed in cover either."

Ruby froze. "S-So everyone else could be dead?"

"Either that or they're too far away from us to be much help. I also think we landed off course. There should only be one village between us and our target and that _definitely_ wasn't the village."

Yang had caught her breath by this point, as had Ruby. Yang was checking her B.A.R. ammunition, and, apparently unsatisfied, she dumped the clip and pocketed the two bullets she had remaining.

Yang, as slowly and gently as she could, loaded a fresh clip and cocked the weapon so a bullet was in the chamber. "I think we dropped closer to the coast than we should have. I think there's railroad tracks directly north of us, if we follow them to the east and then make another turn to the north at some point we should be back on course."

Yang was better at memorizing maps than Ruby was. Ruby had no idea how Yang kept all of this information in her head.

Ruby heard a distant roar then, above the din of the anti-aircraft guns. "Yang."

Yang looked up in the sky. "I know. I hear them."

As Ruby looked up in the sky, she could see the distant figures of Allied planes flying over them through the fog. And people jumping out of them.

_More paratroopers. Then we must have landed on the edge of one of the drop zones!_

Ruby thought that one over for a second. _Either that or they're being dropped off course like we were. _

"I think we just found our backup for our mission," Yang said. "Hurry, before they think we're enemies."

"How can we do that?" Ruby asked, as Yang sprung to her feet.

Yang turned towards Ruby and smiled. "Simple. We start talking to them before they even think to pull out their weapons."

Yang immediately began moving, and Ruby dutifully followed. She saw a paratrooper landing straight ahead to the right, next to a tree cluster, and made a beeline right for him.

She made it to him just as he landed. He looked young, though that might have been due to how wide his eyes were when he saw Ruby. Seeing a girl in American combat uniform probably was unexpected.

"Hi," Ruby said. She eyed him up and down. He was actually kind of cute.

"H-Hi?" the soldier asked.

It occurred to Ruby that she should probably introduce herself before attempting to drag this soldier into her mission. Looking him over, it looked like he had brought along a . . . Karabringer 98, with a scope? Why was he using a _German _weapon?

Ruby shook off the paranoid thoughts. He had just dropped from an _Allied_ plane, for heaven's sake. He likely took it off a dead German in Africa. And that meant that he was a _sniper_, at that.

_Damn, Yang and I lucked out on this one! About time we lucked out on _something _during this crappy mission. _

Ruby smiled. "Captain Ruby Rose, Office of Strategic Services, temporarily attached to the 505th as a special operations officer. Nice to meet you, soldier. Got that gun off a dead Kraut?"

"Yeah. Got him in Bizerte and took his gun." The young soldier paused. "Wait. _Who_ are you?"

"Captain Ruby Rose, O.S.S."

"There's no way in God's good heaven that you're a captain."

Same reaction from every soldier who didn't have clearance. Ruby hated to admit it, but she was getting used to it. "Do I _have_ to get my dog tags out for you to believe me?"

The young soldier stared, and then looked away. "No. I believe you."

"Oh yeah?" Ruby had never convinced anyone so easily before. This was actually kind of weird.

"Your eyes," the young soldier said. "You have the eyes of someone who's killed. No one with your eyes would lie about being a soldier."

Ruby froze. She had never expected that answer at all. This young soldier was far more insightful than she could ever have thought. Despite being a golden boy with looks made for the silver screen, he was a clear veteran.

Ruby looked over to her left for Yang. She had already found two soldiers. Ruby knew she needed to get a move on.

"Well, glad you believe me. I'm conscripting you and that rifle of yours into the O.S.S. until further notice. What's your name and rank, soldier?"

The young soldier looked up at her, as he pulled out his knife to cut himself free from his parachute.

"Corporal James Barnes, 82nd Airborne."

* * *

><p><em>Club Chén, Hong Kong, China<br>Present Day_

The club was packed full of people, with loud, electronic music playing at a decibel where Ruby could barely hear her own thoughts, much less Lie Ren's.

_I guess it would have been too much to ask for the club to be closed when we showed up. _

As she maneuvered her way around the ground, she felt Lie tapping her shoulder. "Look, by the barstand."

Ruby followed Lie's hand until she saw him. Yes, this man definitely fit the profile of Hei "Junior" Xiong. Native of Hong Kong, spent formative years in the United States, moved back during his college years and stayed here. Reported to be connected to White Fang and other unsavory groups, and considered dangerous.

He was tall, wearing a suit sans the coat, and he had a black goatee serving to make his already tough appearance even tougher. He looked like a muscular, strong individual, but Ruby doubted he had muscles for brains. No one stupid could have an operation like Junior had for so many years.

"How do you want to play this?" Lie asked. "He's got a small army of henchmen and I think the DJ may be armed too."

_What would Yang do? _

Ruby sighed.

_Oh, I know what she'd do._

"Honestly, it wouldn't be surprised if we've already been spotted and identified," Ruby said. "We're taking the direct route!"

"Why does this _not_ surprise me?" Lie moaned.

Ruby, having already made up her mind, marched right for Junior. She looked out of her peripheral vision and saw several guards did have their guns and they were waiting to shoot. Yeah, Junior definitely knew they were here, and trying to back out now would just cause a gunfight in a disadvantageous position.

The only way to get out of here and still succeed in her mission objectives was to seize the advantage while she still could.

She marched towards the barstand. Junior was already eyeing her. Ruby made no move towards her weapon, though. As long as Junior was lead to believe that this was a direct negotiation tactic, there was a chance the mission could still succeed without violence.

Though Ruby honestly doubted it.

"I know you," Junior growled as Ruby got close. "Miss America, they called you in World War II. The girl who was a popsicle in the Arctic for decades before they thawed you."

"If you truly knew me, 'Miss America' was a name the propaganda people used in place of my real name, _after_ the war was over," Ruby said. "I was never called that in the field. My sister was never called 'Golden Girl' either."

Junior scoffed. "What do you know about _me_ then, if you think you're so smart?"

"You run a highly successful club," Ruby said. "You also deal arms under the table and you also assist White Fang in unscrupulous activities."

"Who the hell says 'unscrupulous' anymore?" Junior asked, his eyebrow raised.

"Well, you asked me how smart I was, so . . ." The look on Junior's face to that comment was priceless enough Ruby didn't even bother to finish the statement.

"Look, I read a lot of literature as a kid. I picked up words. And, honestly, the way this conversation is going is _asinine. _So . . ."

"What does 'asinine' mean?" Junior asked.

"It's another word for 'stupid'," Ruby replied.

"Why don't you just say 'stupid' then?"

Ruby felt ready to strangle Junior. "If you want to turn this into an insult parade, I got plenty of ammo for you. Number one, aren't you a little old to be called 'Junior'? Unless they're referring to something _else _about you."

Ruby let that hang in the air for a moment, just to let it sink in. It did, with Junior both widening his eyes in surprise and then giving Ruby the evil eye. "I get the point."

Lie sighed. "Want me to take point on this?"

"I got it under control," Ruby said. "Just showing Junior that there's a lot more I can say but I won't, as long as he's willing to keep things cordial."

"You can't expect 'cordiality' if you're just going to barge on someone's property to make demands," Junior said. "I don't know how things worked back in World War II, Ms. Rose, but they don't work that way nowadays."

"I haven't made demands," Ruby replied. "All I plan on making are . . . requests. Requests that I strongly recommend you agree to, because BEACON doesn't negotiate."

"No one from America ever comes to negotiate," Junior grumbled.

Ruby studied the man. His eyes were too hardened. This man was not going to capitulate to whatever she said. He was the type of man who was persuaded by ability, not by words. In other words, he was going to need to be beaten up and left lying on the ground with blood coming out of his nose. Then he would understand.

Ruby tensed up. It wouldn't be long before the battle began.

"Right now, I know you have BEACON agents in custody in the back room. I want you to give up custody of them. If you don't, I'm afraid Lie and I are going to have to kick your ass and likely cause a lot of expensive property damage in the process."

"You expect me to just roll over and do what you want," Junior says.

"Pretty much," Ruby said, making sure to add extra cheerfulness just to piss Junior off.

"Forget it! I am being paid so much money that whatever property damage you cause, I'll more than make it up! Boys, eliminate them!"

Junior immediately leapt away then, and Ruby and Lie found themselves surrounded by a dozen of Junior's men, armed with machine-guns.

Ruby immediately brought out Argentum Rose, and a silver-colored variation of her Crescent Rose came to life. "I knew there wasn't any way we were getting out of here without a fight, Lie. I saw it in his eyes."

"You could have still tried," Lie said.

Ruby scanned her environment. The music had stopped, but she looked above the crowd fleeing the area, towards the top floor of the establishment, where a DJ in a bear suit was standing above.

"We need to take the high ground. Come on!"

Ruby charged then, and leapt into the air just to land on one of Junior's henchmen, and then used him as a stepping-stone to leap high into the air, above everyone else.

She pivoted in mid-air, and turned her body around towards the henchmen trying to spin in her direction.

She fired Argentum Rose. Immediately, Ruby detected a much stronger kick, and a more powerful shot, compared to her Crescent Rose. Enough so that a few of these shots were continuing to propel her higher in the air.

Ruby hit the dance ball, leapt on top of it, and then leapt off the ball, heading right for the DJ station.

The DJ in the bear suit was most flummoxed when Ruby landed right on top of his equipment.

"Hiya!" Ruby said, before she punched the DJ squarely in the face. The DJ was knocked off of his feet and crashed into the back wall.

Ruby stared at all of the equipment she was in possession of then. She had the high ground, but had no idea how to make any of it work. Researching this kind of stuff hadn't been on her itinerary. She knew how to make record players work, of course, one thing that was nice about this world is that what ordinary people seemed to call 'hipsters' loved vinyl, but this station was a lot more complicated than any record player she had ever seen.

_Well, what does this button do? _

Ruby hit a random button. A random light came on, "KEN ARAI – COMPLEX". The needle went on a random record, and all of a sudden an upbeat electronic song came to life.

_I was actually looking for a way to dim the lights, but this will do. This song sounds good for a fight. _

Lie Ren made it to her, looking bewildered. "You ran up this way just to turn on _background music_?"

"Actually, I was going to kill the lights so we could use night vision on them. Unfortunately, I have no idea what I'm doing, so . . ."

Lie rolled his eyes.

"Besides, now we have the high ground. Junior's thugs will have to come to _us_," Ruby said, ignoring Lie's annoyance, which, she internally admitted, was kind of justified.

As Ruby said this, she saw at least twelve henchmen charging towards her and Lie. They seemed to be splitting their force 50/50, with half coming towards Ruby's side, and the other half coming for Lie.

"Race ya to Junior, Lie. I say we got three minutes before he bugs out with his hostages. You ready?"

"Even if I wasn't, I wouldn't have much of a choice. Let's go," Lie said, as he brought out his twin pistols, collectively called Stormflower, and aimed them right at the henchmen heading his way.

The music kicked into what sounded like its main beat. Ruby liked it. As accidental as it was, this music _was_ good for a fight.

"Way ahead of you." Ruby bent her knees, and picked out her first target.

She charged.


	5. The First Embers

**Chapter Five: The First Embers**

_July 10th, 1943  
>Sicily<br>Operation Husky_

They were nearly an hour behind schedule, but at least they were closer to their destination.

Yang and Ruby had managed to gather five other soldiers from the stick that had jumped out, and then encountered a force of forty other soldiers during a battle for another village. After assisting in securing the village, Yang and Ruby were camped out in one of the two-story houses near the center of the small village (that likely had a population of a few hundred or less), along with the lieutenant in charge of the ad-hoc unit.

The lieutenant was not happy. "I need every single soldier I can get. I don't know what shenanigans you O.S.S. types are up to but I can't spare a man with Italian and German armor possibly in the area."

Yang pointed down at the photograph she had of Yang and Ruby's target. "This woman is infinitely more dangerous than any Italian or German tank."

The lieutenant frowned. "How so?"

Yang sighed. "Classified."

The lieutenant shook his head. "Then you're not getting any help from me or my men. Explain to me why this Kraut bitch is so damned important and maybe I'll be more willing to help. Understand?"

Ruby could tell Yang was going to blow in short order. Yang's right hand had clenched into a fist. The lieutenant was of lower rank than either her or Ruby, and yet the lieutenant was still acting like he was the boss here.

"And honestly, considering the way you two helped us take this village," the lieutenant continued, "I'd really rather not let you two leave either. I saw you ladies fight. I give you credit for some damn good fighting. Now tell me what the hell's going on or nobody's going anywhere."

"Don't make me pull rank on you, Lieutenant," Yang growled. "Or show you what else I can do."

Yang's eyes flared red, just for a moment. Judging by the puzzled look on the lieutenant's face, the lieutenant had noticed the brief change in Yang's eyes.

Ruby decided to spring in before this got ugly. "Her name is Cinder Fall. And she's not a Kraut. She's an American citizen. A traitor."

The lieutenant spun towards Ruby, his eyes wide in shock. "She's _what_?"

"She's a traitor to our country," Ruby said. "And she's doing something highly experimental and dangerous on Sicily, and that's why Yang and I were sent here."

The lieutenant's jaw went slack for a moment, and he leaned back in his chair. "Damn."

Yang looked towards Ruby. "He's not authorized to know, Ruby. You're breaking protocol."

Ruby turned towards Yang. "I know. We'll have to make him take a vow of silence later. Honestly every soldier in this village will have to take one anyway. Our very existence is classified, Yang."

Yang sighed. "All right. I'll tell you what a mid-level O.S.S. operative would know, Lieutenant, but nothing more. Got it? Remember that this is a privilege, not a right."

"Swell. Go ahead," the lieutenant said, but he seemed to be in a bit of a daze, and Ruby wasn't sure how much the lieutenant was going to take in.

"Cinder Fall, as Ruby said, is an American citizen. However, in the mid-1930's, her parents opted to heed Hitler's call for all people of Aryan descent to emigrate back to Germany. After that, her parents got involved with none other than Heinrich Himmler, head of the _Schutzstaffel_. We don't know exactly what happened, but Ms. Fall's been taken under Himmler's wing personally and she is a_Standartenführer_, which is basically a colonel. And she's been doing some experimental testing to the north of here, likely on new technology. Our mission is to kill her before she can use whatever prototypes or weapons she's testing on our soldiers, Lieutenant," Yang said.

The lieutenant nodded, still looking a little out of sorts. "I understand."

"Now, there's a possibility that with a war going on she may have already fled. We were dropped off course," Yang said. "But we still have to go to the location our field officers specified as her testing grounds and verify her presence or lack thereof. If she is not there, Captain Rose and I will gladly return back here and defend this village until relief. But we need to verify she's remained in her location, and if she's there, we have to kill her."

"Swell. Tell me what you need and you got it, ma'am," the lieutenant said, with a defeatist sort of dismay in his voice.

Ruby could see what was going through the lieutenant's head. Fear. Yang had instilled fear in him, just by admitting that some sort of experimental weapon could be unleashed on him and the men in the village. That wasn't the complete truth, the truth was more complicated than that, but Yang had already said more than Ruby had expected her to say.

"We need Corporal James Barnes," Yang said. "He has battle experience and we need a sniper, since my scope-equipped Springfield broke in my landing. Other than him, Captain Rose and I need four men with battle experience before today. That's all that'll be necessary to kill Cinder Fall and any bodyguards she may have."

_She _will_have, not may have,_ Ruby thought. _That is, if she's still there._

"Understood," the lieutenant said. "Anything else I can do for you, ma'am?"

Yang smiled. They had turned the tables on the lieutenant and she was taking on quite a bit of confidence from that, or, at least, it seemed that way to Ruby. "No. That's all we need. Have your choices meet us by the farmhouse we're using as an outpost to the north."

"Yes, ma'am," the lieutenant said.

The matter settled, Ruby and Yang departed, leaving a confused and intimidated officer in their wake.

* * *

><p>The truth was, as always, more complicated than fiction.<p>

Yang had left out that it was rumored that _Standartenführer _Fall was experimenting with Dust , the very same substance that had transformed both her and Ruby into the . . . _superhumans_ they were now. It was only a matter of time before the Germans would catch onto the experiments the Allies were doing with Dust, and it was important to nip that in the bud. Especially since Cinder was doing this at the behest of Himmler and his most specialized, secretive unit, the _Ahnenerbe_. What the Allies knew about the _Ahnenerbe_ would chill any human to the bone, due to the _Ahnenerbe_'s obsession with the occult.

This wasn't the first assassination Yang and Ruby had done. Their assassinations of several _Afrika Korps_ officers had helped in the victory of North Africa, among a lot of other things. In general, if something was going to cause severe hurt to the Allies, Yang and Ruby were sent to make sure that didn't happen. But this was the first time they were being entrusted with killing a member of the_Ahnenerbe_ and this wasn't going to be easy.

This was also the first time the shot was being entrusted to someone other than Yang or Ruby due to Yang's special Springfield being broken. Yang was not comfortable with the specialized Karabringer 98 Barnes had. So that meant it was Barnes who had to take the shot.

Barnes had insisted he had used the rifle before. He had taken it off a dead German in Bizerte, and had promptly begun using it in the battle to take that city. It was also easy to find ammunition for it, as all he needed to do was take it off of dead Germans or from captured German supply depots. The Karabringer 98 was more or less the standard German rifle, after all.

At three in the morning, they had made it to the designated hill where the shot was supposed to have been taken. Both Ruby and Yang had yanked out their binoculars, and were surveying the site below them, which was a mixture of ancient, crumbling ruins and flat terrain, perfect for conducting any sort of tests.

Barnes lay prone between them, looking through his scope. The other veteran soldiers Yang had requested were arrayed in defense positions, making sure no German or Italian would sneak up on them.

Ruby saw her first. "Damn. Yang, that's her. That's definitely her."

There she was, dark hair curled up neatly in a bun, wearing what looked like a female variation of the pitch-black Nazi SS uniform, complete with the red, swastika-emblazoned armband, standing in front of one of the ruins, watching a couple of white-coated scientists move some sort of equipment.

The fact that Cinder Fall was still here, with the war right next door, meant that whatever was going on here was of utmost importance. So much so it was worth the risk of being overrun by Allied forces.

Yang looked from her photograph of Cinder, and back to her binoculars. "Yep. That's her. Right in front of the central ruin."

"What kind of crazy lady names their child 'Cinder'?" Barnes murmured as he presumably spotted Cinder for himself.

"Supposedly Cinder was born in her family's house as it burned down," Yang said. "And survived. I guess that's why they named her 'Cinder'."

"Her parents are goddamn insane," Barnes said.

"You don't hear me arguing," Yang said. "Though let's not pity Cinder here. Anyone who's been made Colonel in the SS ain't worthy of pity. And she's just as crazy as her parents for still being here with an invasion going on."

They paused. Ruby asked "Do you have a shot?"

"Yeah," Barnes said. "Just adjusting for the wind."

"If you have a shot, take it," Yang said. "When you take it, Ruby will launch a few salvos below to confuse them, to make it look like a raid. While they're staggering from that, we escape and run back to the village."

"Got it," Barnes said.

He paused. "Just a little more to the left."

Ruby peered through her binoculars. She knew the moment Barnes fired, and Cinder Fall dropped to the ground, she would need to spring into action and cause chaos on the ground below. That was usually her duty when Yang took shots with the modified Springfield.

She was mid-thought when Barnes' rifle _cracked_.

She did not expect what happened next.

The moment Barnes' rifle went off, she could see Cinder suddenly spin in the direction of the bullet, pulling out a pair of weapons that Ruby had never seen before, and one of them swung directly in front of her face.

_Ping_. The metallic noise was audible even all the way on this hill.

Barnes shook. "Holy shit."

Ruby stared at Cinder through her binoculars. For the first time, she could get a clear view of Cinder's eyes. They were not normal colors.

They were _gold_.

"Yang," Ruby said softly.

Yang immediately jumped up from being prone into a crouching motion, aiming her B.A.R. at the enemies below. Cinder's men were already rushing into position. "I know, Ruby! She's been exposed to Dust too! We're pulling back!"

"Got it!" Ruby let go of her binoculars and brought out Crescent Rose, which transformed to life. She switched it into gun mode and aimed it towards the enemies below, but as she did so, she heard monstrous growling sounds in the distance.

_What the hell is that?_

As she thought that, out of the ruins, came three monstrous looking wolves with eerie white masks, marching behind Cinder, exposed, sharp white teeth in snarling motions.

And Cinder herself had transformed her own weapon. It was like a bow, aiming right for . . .

"We need to get out of here!" Ruby fired Crescent Rose below in a panic, but just as she did so, she could hear Cinder's weapon go off like the most distorted, demented bowstring she had ever heard in her life.

An explosion erupted to her right, and she could hear the panicked shouts of the men Yang and Ruby had brought with them.

And then the monstrous beasts began to charge right towards the hill.

And it became clear to Ruby that all hell had just broken loose.

* * *

><p><em>Club Chén, Hong Kong, China<br>Present Day_

Ruby pivoted Argentum Rose among her attackers, swinging it around like it was some kind of colossal baton, sending every end of it into the gut of Junior's henchmen. They had made the crucial mistake of attempting to crowd the stairs and shoot Ruby up-close, but Ruby was moving Argentum Rose too fast for them to get a clear shot at her. What gunshots were going off were only being deflected off of Argentum Rose, and Ruby, undeterred, continued to knock around the henchmen off the stairs.

She made a quick look to her left to see Lie Ren leaping above his own foes, firing Stormflower at his enemies in mid-air. Stormflower didn't have the kick of Crescent Rose or the "upgraded" Argentum Rose but it still packed a powerful punch, knocking the henchmen aside with each shot that hit them.

_All right. Lie has his side under control. Then . . . _

Ruby moved swiftly as she leapt to the ground floor. A couple of her opponents had gotten up and were attempting to box her in. Ruby swung downwards, barely missing cutting one of the henchmen from the top-down. It was with such force that Argentum Rose was firmly entrenched in the ground from the swing, but Ruby wasn't dissuaded.

She used Argentum Rose like a pole and swung herself around, kicking the three henchmen trying to surround her. Upon landing, she used the momentum to firmly yank Argentum Rose out of the ground, and all she saw around her were henchmen lying on the ground.

_These guys are nothing compared to the Chitauri or German soldiers. _

Ruby turned towards Lie Ren, who was finishing off his own opponents. "Lie, I'm gonna go on ahead!"

"I don't think so."

The broken, almost husky, young female voice nearly caught Ruby off guard. She spun towards the source of the voice, only to find two young women in what looked like combat dresses walking casually into the ballroom. Both had green eyes, porcelain skin, and long dark hair, one dressed in red, the other dressed in white.

The red one smiled towards her twin. "Melanie, who is this girl?"

The white one was even more casual, she had her arms folded. "I don't know, Miltia. Let's teach her a lesson."

Ruby heard footsteps from her left, and she saw Lie Ren catch up. "Actually, I think _Lie _here is gonna teach you girls a lesson instead. Take care of 'em for me, will ya?"

"Ruby, wait!" Lie yelled.

But Ruby had already taken off, leaping above the girls. She knew Lie wasn't going to be happy about this, but honestly she had already wasted a minute and twenty seconds out of her self-imposed three minutes. Junior was probably already at the hostages and if she didn't catch up quickly there would be serious trouble.

"Hey!" the girls shouted, but before they could do anything, Lie had already leapt between them firing both of Stormflower's pistols, knocking them backwards. Ruby turned to see Lie looking quite annoyed.

"Sorry, Lie! We're running out of time! I'll come back once the hostages are secure!" Ruby then turned and ran through the exit, only to find a bunch of cooks waiting for her armed with pans and knives.

_Seriously? I have to fight a kitchen cartel now?_

Ruby leapt onto one of the cutting tables and found herself beset by a bunch of angry men. Spinning Argentum Rose around, she proceeded to knock their weapons out of their hands one at a time, following by kicks to their faces or a blow from the blunt edge of Argentum Rose.

_I'm not gonna kill these guys. They don't deserve death._

As she thought this, Ruby caught one of the knives thrown at her and responded in throwing it at a hanging kitchen pan above where the thrower had been standing. The pan was dislodged and fell right on top of the thug's head, knocking him out cold after he made the most awkward facial expression Ruby had seen in a while.

She jumped to another table and kicked various types of equipment on the table at her attackers, hitting them in the faces and chests. One of the kettles had boiling water in it and sent the unlucky soul dropping to the floor, covering his face.

After one final deflection of a throwing knife, sending it right into the roof, Ruby aimed Argentum Rose at her final attacker. "You really want this?"

The final attacker took out a frying pan and hit himself on the head without so much as a thought, knocking himself out cold.

"I didn't think so." Ruby took off then, heading for the exit.

_Judging by the looks of this Junior was keeping them in the kitchen. That means . . . _

Ruby dashed into the exit and into the alley, and spun to her left, and upon seeing nothing, looked to her right. There, she saw Junior trying to get into a black limo. As Ruby took off running, Junior slammed the door and the limo began to drive away, squealing its tires loudly.

Without hesitating, Ruby switched Argentum Rose into gun mode and aimed low, waiting for the right moment.

Just as the rear tire of the limo came into view, Ruby fired.

The shot was _strong_. And destructive. Perhaps too destructive.

The shot completely obliterated the right rear tire and most likely over-penetrated it and struck the left rear tire as well. Immediately the limo lost control and Ruby could hear squealing, grinding, and crashing sounds.

Ruby switched Argentum Rose back to scythe mode and ran into the street, to see the limo on its side, and Junior forcing open the rear passenger side door so hard that it came flying off.

And, much to Ruby's horror, Junior was aiming a bazooka-like launcher right for her.

"You're not taking me in that easily!" Junior shouted, right before he fired.

They were multiple, homing shots. Ruby looked behind her, and realized if she tried to dodge, she would risk endangering the civilians in the street.

_Dammit!_

Doing the only thing she could do, she spun the Argentum Rose, aiming to stop the miniature rockets before they could hit her.

The rockets exploded and knocked Ruby backwards, onto her back. Ruby immediately leapt back up to her feet. Dust had given her some measure of extra stamina and endurance, a close range explosion like that wasn't enough to take her out for a while. It had helped that the rockets didn't leave any real shards, or, more accurately, Argentum Rose had knocked the shards away.

This also meant that Junior was like her. He was a Dust-user too. A weapon like that couldn't be handled by a normal person.

_I really hope those girls weren't Dust-users too. I'll have to doubly apologize to Lie._

Ruby rushed forward as Junior was trying to reload. "How dare you shoot that weapon! We're around civilians!"

"You're the one who shot at my limo with civilians around! You're just to blame!" Junior shouted as he finished loading his Dust ammunition into the rocket launcher and aimed it at Ruby.

But Ruby was too close and they both knew it. As Ruby swung down, Junior had to move his rocket launcher to block the scythe.

Junior was _strong_, but his weapon wasn't. Ruby saw the weapon _crack_ under the strain of blocking Argentum Rose.

Ruby smiled. She had won. This man wouldn't endanger any more lives.

She repositioned herself and kicked Junior in the side, knocking him out of the car and sending him into the street.

The driver of the limo tried to get out, and Ruby sidestepped and unceremoniously kicked him in the head, which sent him falling back into the car.

Then, Junior aimed his weapon right at Ruby. "Gotcha!"

The weapon exploded and sent Junior flying backwards several feet, leaving him a smoking heap on the ground.

"No. I got you," Ruby said.

She walked forward cautiously towards the motionless Junior, and briefly examined him. Unconscious, and he was going to be in pain for a while, but he'd live.

A small smile crossed her face. There. She had won.

Lifting Junior over her shoulder, she walked over to the limo, where the hostages were slowly, nervously, starting to climb out.

Things hadn't been executed perfectly, but at least needing Rumlow's backup hadn't been entirely necessary. That meant that the mission wasn't at any risk of failure at any time.

Still, she wondered about Lie Ren . . .

* * *

><p>Lie Ren stood between two angry twin girls, his clothes shredded in multiple areas, and blood from multiple cuts on his face, arms, and legs.<p>

The girls didn't look like they were in better shape. The one in the red dress was looking at her dress and one of her broken claws in horror. "Mel, he burned my dress!"

The one in the white dress staggered to her feet, rubbing her head. "He gave me a black eye, Miltia!"

"Let's get him! For real!"

"Yeah!"

Lie sighed as the girls rushed him, shrieking in the signature torment of offended Millennials.

_I hate my life sometimes._

He aimed both Stormflower pistols and fired.


End file.
